STORM OVER EUROPE : THE WANDERING TRIBES : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM SERIES REVIEW

An excellent four-part series, STORM OVER EUROPE focuses on the migration of Germanic tribes from what was as far north as Denmark and Norway south and throughout present-day Europe and into Tunisia (Africa but not far from Sicily). There is a lot of information to learn so you may want to take it slow or rewatch the series over time.

The Goths - Ostrogoths - Visigoths. The Vandals. The Franks. The Anglo - Saxons. For some their wish was to live with the Romans or live like them: Romans lived in relative luxury and their legal system was desirable. And Italy was thought to have excellent resources.

The winters in their Germanic homelands were harsh and resulted in wintery starvation. Their leaders lead them on foot slowly migrating to find a new place to settle. Forty years - three generations - or more - and then they'd start migrating again.

But as has been the history of the world, it's not so easy to find a place vacant of people who got their first. Bloody battles resulting in the death of thousands over centuries occurred, each changing the course of history. The Roman Empire was vast. The Romans were not going to easily give up their power or allow fast assimilation.

This is also a story of Paganism and Christianity and how Catholicism won out.

In some cases the Germanic people were slaves. In others they dominated, mating with local women and reducing the Y DNA of the native male population.

I was surprised to know that France and Spain were so Germanic. Ok. The Franks are France, Brittany Celtic, but I think of French culture and language differently. I think of the culture and language of France and Spain as Latin just as I do Italy.

Of interest especially to my Hungarian and Hungarian - American readers, the Huns and their Attilla are part of the story. From Scandinavia to the Black Sea area, the Visigoths would make it to the South of France but the Huns attacked them there. And sometimes Germanic tribes found themselves on opposite sides and battled each other. But it was the Germanic tribes that finally sent the Huns back to their Asian base, according to this series.

Here are some positives in this series;

Archeologists from all over Europe are studying graves and grave goods and their work is profiled. 

A skull collection at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest is brought forward due to the talents of a forensic artist anthropologist who recreates the faces so we can see what people from the 6th century looked like, including Huns. (They practiced skull elongation.)

Gorgeous finds of jewelry, crowns, helmets, swords, buckles, bows and arrows prove that each culture was sophisticated enough to have high caliber artisans even if they thought of the other culture as "barbarian." 

The quality of the production is high. The costuming, war wounds, hair styles, authentic. 

However, I ran the English text on screen and there were some translations that were so wrong from the spelling of Attila to the spelling of the Tisza River and there was no mention of Magyars or other non-Germanic tribes associated with Hungarians.

So according to other sources the Hunnic empire stretched over Central Europe in the fifth century. The Huns and the Romans were enemies. The Huns were actually a number of tribal groups that did not include the Magyars. ... Direct descendants of Attila, Prince Almos and Prince Arpad became founders of Hungary generations later. King Istvan was a fifth generation descendent of Almos.

Only episode 4, which dwells on the Anglo Saxons mentions DNA. DNA is, to me, the most revealing story of migration and culture.

C 2021 Magyar American - BlogSpot

BUDAPEST : CITY OF CAVES : THE HISTORY CHANNEL FILM: CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD SERIES : MAGYAR-AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

History Channel's BUDAPEST CITY OF CAVES is about the subterranean beneath the capital city of Hungary and oh was it interesting! 

There are 20 million year old cave systems that 2 million people live above and most do not know it's secrets.  Though the ancients knew of caves, two of these systems were just rediscovered in more recent times, such as the world's oldest limestone cave system below the Castle Hill district, which was rediscovered in 1818 or the caves beneath the Buda side of Buda Pest (the hilly part) that were rediscovered in 1873.  In the early 1900's the Palvolgy Matyashegy cave system was found. Today there are 170 known caves, one up to 12 miles long, another up to 300 feet beneath the city. 

Millions of years ago the entire country of Hungary and then some was under Lake Pannon. As the waters receded the caves were formed.  Budapest and the hilly areas first appeared as islands.

We can go back to the time of the 13th century when the Mongols were riding over the country, and then the occupation by the Turks. Today most of the houses on Castle Hill have four sub cellars from the crude cave-like ones, to ones where they hid things from the Turks, to more recently built, and all these caves and cellars must be supporting the weight above them.

Over time 800 year old Matthias Church had to be retrofitted.  The caves below show pillars built of stone used to reinforce but it wasn't the weight of the Church or buildings in general, it was the 10 ton double decker tour buses that sent vibrations below.  The buses caused so much expensive damage that they are no longer allowed on Castle Hill.

Saint Ivan once healed people in a cave below Budapest.  That cave is believed to be below the famous Gellert Baths! 

Saint Istvan (Stephen's) church is also below ground in a cave. There are over 118 natural hot springs in Budapest.  In 89 AD when the Roman's occupied they called the city "Good Water."  So besides saints healing and Roman's bathing, citizens hiding their possessions from raiders and tax collectors, and so on, what else could be down there?!

Think World War II and then the Russian invasion!  Think about an underground hospital that follows the natural path of a cave system that goes on for a mile!  It was considered bomb proof but when the Russians came the 600 people who were down there were massacred.  In the 1960's fall out shelters with ventilators were installed and the machinery still works!

So I don't want to ruin all the surprises in wait for you when you watch this film!

At the time that I watched this film, I also watched one about Paris and Paris has at least 3 million skeletons beneath it.  I bring this up because oddly, it does not seem that the cave system in Budapest has been used for mass burials.

C 2013 Magyar- American BlogSpot  Film Review